Introduction Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer in the United States, and its incidence is likely to continue to increase with the increasingly aging population. Majority of patients presents a localized PCa, while less than 5% of patients…
Multidisciplinary management of bone metastases In general, the treatment of bone metastases is aimed at palliating symptoms, with cure only rarely a realistic aim in a few rare malignancies such as lymphoma or germ cell tumors affecting bone. Treatments vary…
Introduction One of the first to observe the propensity of breast cancers to form bone metastases was the surgeon, Stephen Paget, who described the site distribution of metastases in 735 cases of breast cancer proposing that the association of metastases…
Introduction Bisphosphonates (BPs) are well established as the gold standard treatment for metabolic bone diseases associated with excessive bone destruction, including osteoporosis, bone metastases, and cancer therapy–induced bone loss. By virtue of their ability to chelate calcium ions, BPs bind…
Introduction Bone metastasis is common and is one of the leading causes of complications in the natural history of cancer. The consequences of bone metastasis may compromise quality of life, limit day-to-day activities, threaten life expectancy, and increase medical intervention…
The definition of palliative care In 1990, the WHO defined this term as the active and holistic care of patients with advanced or progressive diseases, including the treatment of pain and other symptoms; it also included aspects of the evolutionary…
Introduction Approximately 50% of cancer patients will receive palliative radiotherapy (RT) during the course of their disease [ ]. Bone metastases (BMs) remain a significant concern in the radiation oncology setting, and 70% of BMs occur in the axial skeleton…
Introduction Bone metastasis is prevalent in the advanced stages of both breast and prostate cancer, and is a frequent finding in patients that succumb to these two diseases. Although breast cancer metastasizes to multiple body tissues, including bone, lung, liver,…
Research highlights Bone cancer pain is the most common presenting symptom in patients with skeletal metastases. Bone cancer pain has both nociceptive and neuropathic components. Persistent afferent stimulus from tumor-bearing bone induces peripheral and central sensitization. Bone cancer pain is…
Acknowledgments We would like to acknowledge the Nuclear Medicine Department and the Centre for PET at Austin Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, for providing the images; Dr. Alan Wong from the Austin Department of Pathology for assisting with photographing the histology slides.…